Provincia de Albay[1]
Villa de Libon
Camalig
Polangui—goods exported are sent to the markets of Ligao, Oas, and Albay (Huerta, 266).
Oás—Tuesdays and Fridays: “sus naturales se dedican á la agricultura y beneficio del abacá, y las mugeres á tejer guinaras, cuyos productos, con el arroz sobrante, espenden en los mercados que celebra el mismo pueblo los martes y viernes, ó bien transportan á la cabecera y puerto de Albay (Huerta, 268).
Cagsaua—Mondays and Fridays:[2] “Sus naturales se dedican á la agricultura y beneficio del abacá, y las mugeres al tejido de piñas, sinamayes y guinaras, cuyos productos realizan en los mercados que celebra el mismo pueblo los lunes y viernes, ó conducen al puerto y cabecera de Albay” (Huerta, 272). Quiason (using Huerta) also indicates Mondays and Fridays for the weekly market (Quiason, 25). [Also see entry for Cagsaua below]
Ligao—Mondays:[3] “Sus naturales se dedican á la agricultura y beneficio del abacá y las mugeres al tejido de guinaras, telas de seda y abacá, cuyos productos, con el sobrante del arroz, realizan en el Mercado que el mismo pueblo celebra todos los lunes, ó tambien suelen conducirlos al puerto de Albay” (Huerta, 275). Quiason also uses Huerta to confirm the weekly market day as Monday (Quiason, 25).
Guinobatan—Thursdays: “… cuyos productos espenden en el Mercado que celebra el pueblo todos los jueves, ó bien conducen al puerto y cabecera de Albay” (Huerta, 277). Quiason, using Huerta, also indicates Thursdays for the weekly market (Quiason, 25).
Pilar
Feodor Jagor, 18th century traveler in the Philippines, also has an example of a tiangue,[4] describing a local market in Daraga, held on “Monday and Friday evenings,” staffed by “women, neatly and cleanly clad, [who] sat in long rows and offered their provisions for sale by the light of hundreds of torches; and, when the business was over, the slopes of the mountains were studded all over with flickering little points of brightness proceeding from the torches carried by the homeward-bound market women. Besides eatables many had silks and stuffs woven from the fibers of the pine-apple and the banana for sale. These goods they carried on their heads….”
Cagsaua: Philippine National Archives, Erecciones de Pueblos, Camarines Sur, 1799-1820: Año de 1817, Solicitud de los principals y vecinos del pueblo de Cagsaua, Camarines Sur, pidiendo que se les conceda el tiangui ó mercado un dia cada Semana.[5]
Petition by the principals (25 October 1817) requesting that the day for the tiangue be moved from its present assignment on Sundays to another day. The alcalde mayor, Don Ynigozales Azaula, on 1 August moved the days previously used for the tiangue to Sunday.[6] The reason alleged was that too many “vagabonds” came to the market on its customary days. The priest in his 26 December note strongly suggests that the concern with “vagabonds” is but a pretext since there are legal ways to handle unregistered tributos. The Filipino petitioners says that Sunday is not a good day for the market since after Mass all the principales meet to discuss matters concerning the pueblo. The Franciscan priest, P. Fr. Manuel de Jesus Maria y San Pascual, adds that Iraya also had its customary market day (not specified) changed by the Alcalde mayor (again, the day is unspecified). Moreover, he adds, the Cagsaua market day is very useful and if it is on Sundays, the merchants who come from other provinces to buy and sell cannot come, reducing opportunities for the poor in Cagsaua. They have effectively been forced to sell their guinaras to the alcalde at a lower price than usual. Not only has he effectively lowered the price—from 2 reales to 1.25 real—on 21 October he demanded that the size of the guinaras he buys be changed from what they had been producing. The alcalde is of course also able to charge a premium price for any goods he sells since there is no effective competition in the Sunday market. The government summary of 9 February 1818 adds that any day other than Sunday would be fine. The market day is essential so that Filipinos from other pueblos can come to sell rice and other essentials. The summary indicates that the alcalde has subsequently, on 15 November, prohibited any tiangue at all in Cagsaua, which we are told violates Ley 28, tit. 1, lib. 6 of the Recopilación, which orders that “Indios cannot be prohibited from having tianguis [sic] and markets in their pueblos.” The summary suggests that the alcalde mayor be reminded he has no right “to impede free commerce.” On 12 February 1820, the government had decided in favor of the principales of Cagsaua, saying that the market day could be on Thursdays, a decision confirmed and presumably implemented 14 May 1820, two and one half years after the initial complaint. [Also see entry for Cagsaua above, taken from Huerta]
[1] Initial listing and designation taken from Félix de Huerta, O.F.M., Estado geográfico, topográfico, estadístico, histórico-religioso de la santa y apostólica Provincia de San Gregorio Magno, de religiosos Menores Descalzos de la Regular y más estrecha Observancia de n. s. p. s. Francisco en las islas Filipinas; comprende el número de religiosos, conventos, pueblos, situación de estos, años de su fundación, tributos, almas, producciones, industrias, casos especiales de su administración spiritual, en el archipiélago Filipino, desde su fundación en el año de 1577 hasta el de 1865 (Binondo: M. Sánchez, 1865. 2nd ed.). 713pp. Municipality entries with no information indicate I found nothing of value for this topic in this source and edition. Note also that the listing in this volume is only for parishes administered by the Franciscans; there were of course other municipalities in these provinces and as we develop data for those pueblos I will add them.
[2] Both Oas and Cagsaua are reported to have one of their market days weekly on the same day, Friday. This is a surprise. I would have expected to have different market days during the week so that merchants could more efficiently move from pueblo to pueblo to buy and sell.
[3] Both Ligao and Cagsaua are reported to have one of their market days weekly on the same day, Monday. Again, this seems counterintuitive.
[4] Chapter Ten, Feodor Jagor, Travels in the Philippines (from the 1875 English translations), from Austin Craig, ed., The Former Philippines through Foreign Eyes, from books by Fedor Jagor, Tomas de Comyn, Charles Wilkes, and Rudolf Virchow (Manila: Philippine Education Department, 1916). Available and used on line through Guttenberg Books, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10770/10770-8.txt.
[5] Reference identified and pursued thanks to Norman G. Owen, “Challenging Colonial Authority: Principalia vs. Priest in 19th-Century Kabikolan.” The Journal of History, 47 (January-December 2001), 102-127—here, 122n19.
[6] In the time of the alcalde mayor D. José Mancon the day used was Thursday. An earlier governor, D. Antonio Zuñiga, “after the eruption of the volcano granted us another day for the market, which was Monday.” I assume the reference is to the 1814 eruption of Mount Mayon, when the población was destroyed and relocated. The priest indicates that both Mondays and Thursdays were used until the August order of the current governor.